We live in a digital world where we are surrounded by screens 24/7, whether we like it or not. Perhaps this is why marketers have adopted video marketing and video content to reach their target audience in the past couple of years.
These days, people would rather watch online videos about your product or service than read about it. Lots of people on social media spend a significant portion of their time viewing videos.
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The demand for videos is so much that even LinkedIn that has traditionally been a text-based social network, is now adopting videos to reach their target audience.
As a business owner, how can you start using videos as part of your digital marketing? There are two ways you can go about it:
- If you don’t want to go through all the hassles of producing your videos, you can outsource it to professionals.
- Another way to go about it (especially for those who don’t mind investing the time and resources needed) is to do it yourself.
For those who choose to do it themselves, they are initially sceptical about how to start. They usually don’t have a video marketing strategy to guide what type of videos (animated videos, explainer videos, etc.) to create and how to reach their existing and potential customers. That’s why I’m writing this article on how you can start using video marketing to grow your business.
Proceed with Caution
You need not create videos on par with a Steven Spielberg production. You need a good quality video to communicate your message through your video marketing campaigns.
If your first attempt to create online videos/video ads is crap, don’t publish it. If your first attempt at creating a video is just ‘okay,‘ post it. With practice, you can only get better.
You must dedicate resources to creating your videos and promoting them on various social media platforms. At the very least, you’ll need a good smartphone.
If you create animation videos, then you’ll need the right software. But the fancier your software, the more money it’ll cost.
Want to make live shot videos instead rather than other types of videos? If you have the money to splurge, then you can get the best gear you can afford.
But if you’re on a tight budget, forget about getting an expensive recording studio and use your office or business location instead to create your product videos.
The most important thing is to have a particular location (think office or conference room) dedicated to producing your videos for your social platform.
It’s also essential that your chosen location has good natural lighting. So think of a place with a window. Focus on making your videos entertaining and informative.
To be on the safe side, you can start by converting your existing content into video format. Converting current material into video format is what I often do.
If, for instance, you have an article, infographic or PowerPoint slide that has done well and has a reasonable conversion rate with your audience, you can convert that into a video.
You'll need to dedicate resources to creating your videos. At the very least, you'll need a good smartphone. Click To TweetTest Your Initial Results
Use the analytics tools on your website, chosen social channels or another marketing tool to test your audience’s engagement with your first videos.
If the feedback you get from your target audience is correct, then create more of the same type of video following the same format.
But if the feedback on your type of content is negative, don’t despair. Find out from your audience the type of videos they want to get from you and do accordingly.
Adopt Best Practices
Don’t focus on your products or services. Show the people behind the brand. Show your team.
Yes, this can seem not very comforting, especially for people (like me) who don’t like to be in front of the camera. But with time, it’ll get comfortable.
Also, keep your videos straight to the point. Be informative and entertaining. People these days have brief attention spans, so keep your videos short and sweet. Less is more should be your watchword for creating videos.
Always have a Call-to-Action at the end, i.e. let your viewers know what action they should take after viewing your video.
Do you want them to visit your website/blog, download your app, buy your product or service, call or contact you to learn more, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social media channels, etc.?
Tell your audience what you want them to do. Don’t assume that your audience will know.
Upload your videos directly to your various social networks that allow videos. But don’t rely on your YouTube channel alone as a hub for your videos.
If your hosting account has the resources and permits it, you can also upload your videos directly to your website to better control its storage.
Promote Your Videos
Just uploading your videos to your website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., is not enough.
You’ve spent a considerable amount of time and resources creating your video. Therefore, it’s only natural that you’d want to get the best ROI out of it.
To do so, you need to shell out a few bucks to pay the relevant platforms to promote your videos. You also need to take it a step further and recruit the right social media influencers to help boost your videos.
Genuine social media influencers in your niche already have an engaged audience of followers, and they can influence their followers into buying your brand. Doing this will take you into the realm of influencer marketing.
Measuring Your Performance
How will you measure your video marketing statistics or the performance of your videos? Is it by viewership, reach, engagement, website traffic, etc.?
As you have identified different KPI’s you use in measuring your written content, you also need to define KPI’s you’ll use to measure the performance of your videos.
The last thing you want to do is invest time and resources in creating videos and social media posts that get no tangible results.
As video marketers, measuring your performance is crucial for B2B brands who may not always produce videos talking about their brand.
As part of their digital marketing strategy, they have to produce videos unrelated to their brands, but that can still captivate their audience and direct them back to their brand.
Next Steps to Take on Video Marketing
Now you know how to use video marketing to reach your potential customer and grow your business. The next thing is to determine the video content to produce to captivate potential clients. We will discuss the various video contents in the following article.
Like I mentioned before, if you don’t want to go through all these hassles, you can outsource your video marketing to our digital marketing agency in Nigeria.
Contact us if you have questions or queries about video marketing or digital marketing strategy. We’ll be glad to help. Catch you later.
Related Article(s)
- The Best Video Ad Networks for Small Publishers
- Reasons You Should Be Talking About B2B Social Networks
- Digital Marketing Archives
- Types of Content for Your Video Marketing
- Types of Video Marketing
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